#wfc shockwave

[wichwitchisit-blog]

I think I really love Shockwave

[scourgeofmyownbrain]

Only one guy on here has two eyes, and even then, they're fake eyes. It's big-tits-McGee, Mr. logic man extraordinaire, Geneva Suggestion Believer himself: Shockwave! Yep, all 12 of him, a reasonable amount of alternates to have, unlike some people... Shockwave Height Chart, everyone, fuckin wee.

Edit: I didn't like the old scaling I had so I changed it. The old chart is at the end of this post.

Quick Disclaimer, if any of the images look weird, it's because I had to stitch a few separate images together to create a full body shot of the character.

Here are links to my Bumblebee Chart, my Optimus Chart, my Megatron Chart, and my Soundwave Chart. !!NEW!! -> Ratchet & Ironhide. Please go gawk at how many Optimus designs there are, sweet fuck, there are so many. For future reference, all these charts will be filed under my "Transformers Height Charts" tag and my "aka the adventures of a..." tag.

Master Post

Explanations and Sources below the cut.

Unicron Trilogy Energon - ~14 feet 3 inches (No actual source, and Energon doesn't have any listed heights anywhere. For the uneducated, the Unicron Trilogy has given each of its 3 seasons separate names and 3 separate art styles. This is the design used in Energon (S2) though he only shows up in Energon. I was able to compare him to Optimus, and using Cybertron's listed heights, I got this number. I am in physical pain, it does not get better from here. Hilarious side note, his Japanese name is Laserwave, which contains the missing "wave" of Shockwave in this iteration's name.)

Earth Spark - ~15 feet (No actual source for ES, but using a barn door to get Bumblebee's height, then Optimus's, then Megatron's height, I was able to make a guess at Shockwave's. Shockwave comes up to about Megatron's chin; I lost the screenshot I used. It's so convoluted, I know, but it's all I have, also, tiny universe, everyone is so small)

TFA Longarm/V1 - 15 feet 2 inches (Animated has no actual numbers, but the lovely @phoenix-inanis has provided a frankly astounding resource with their own calculations for the heights of all the TFA characters. Go look at it, it's wonderful -> https://phoenix-inanis.notion.site/TFA-Height-Chart-f6ad2960ca8c4c5b859ee4958723aaa4?pvs=4)

Gen 1 - ~18 feet (TFWiki, uuuuh I've got nothing to add)

Netflix Cybertron Trilogy - ~18 feet (I have no source for this, other than assuming that because this design is identical to Gen 1, they are the same height. That's it, really)

Knight/Capel-Verse - ~18 feet (No source, and he never stands next to anyone I can measure him against, but because the TFOne director has said that this movie is both canon to the LA movies and its own separate canon, I am assuming the height I figured out for TFOne applies to this universe as well. Until proven otherwise. Capel directed the ROTB movie if you're wondering why his name is there)

One - ~18 feet (No source, I got this number by comparing him to Optimus. Now, I am aware of the TFO heights listed on the wiki, but I reject those numbers on principal. A: Those numbers are sourced from the Walmart Promotional AR Experience that came out before the movie. B: There are three decimal points, and that number does not convert into a whole number in meters (which is originally what I thought was weird about it). C: The director has said that this movie is both canon to the LA movies and its own separate canon, so I have elected to use the few given heights we have from KCV and worked from there. My Optimus post has slightly more context if you want it)

Cyberverse - 20 feet (This comes from a screenshot of this video which has the Cyberverse height chart everyone uses, though the quality of the screenshot is iffy.)

Aligned Cont. WF/FOC/TFP - 26 feet 2 inches (This number comes from Fandom and I completely believe it, even if they don't list their source, because the entirety of this universe is freakishly tall. Go look at my other charts, all the ALC designs are monstrous compared to the others)

TFA V2 - 29 feet 11 inches (Once again, phoenix-inanis did a fuck ton of work, go look at it, it's wonderful -> https://phoenix-inanis.notion.site/TFA-Height-Chart-f6ad2960ca8c4c5b859ee4958723aaa4?pvs=4)

Bayverse - ~30 feet (Ok, so I don't have a source for this one. There used to be one, BV Shockwave used to be listed as 40 feet tall bc of an article done to promote the movie, but that is no longer listed for reasons not known to me, and making some comparisons to Optimus, I have found them to be kinda close in height. It's very hard to actually validate any of this. Shockwave never stands normally next to anything I can use as a ruler at any point in the movie. He's always at a dramatic angle or partially covered by something in the shot. It's so violently frustrating. I am confident he is around this height though, I just can't figure out how much taller than Optimus he is)

And that's it. I didn't have to leave any designs out, all of them are included here (hopefully). It was so nice to work with a character where I wasn't drowning in 20+ designs across every goddamn universe.

Edit: Here are the different layers separated.

vvv Old scale vvv

[pocoslip]

If they ever do Studio Series Gamer Edition WFC Shockwave, I don't mind a Brimstone Repaint

(If Takara Hasbro can't make a New Cybertron Brimstone Toy anyway)

[transingthoseformers]

Re: this

Netflix WFC Shockwave wasn't a mnemosurgeon, but didn't he at least allegedly do the second one to himself?

Iicr, I don't remember the netflix trilogy well but iicr, you're right

Imagine the consequences that had that we Didn't see

[mubthemoff]

[antenanotaic3]

look him in the eye and tell him no

[dormiloncito]

the thing about transformers is that they really get you with the toys

[tiny-tf-faces]

[datharlequinoni]

Transformers Generations WFC: Siege IDW Impactor, Shockwave Netflix Deep Cover (G2 Deep Cover)

[cosmics-beings]

So i LOVE wfc megatron but if i had one complaint about him, it's just how easily he allows shockwave to walk over him. he is too passive for my liking. it's like this is shockwave's movement now , not megatrons. if he put shockwave in his place, at the very beginning and didn't let shockwave speak over him or manipulate him, then things would've been much easier. there was jetfire who was at least, some moral compass but even he just kinda sat on his hands while they tortured the shit out of his boyfriend, i mean magnus. Megatron gets mad at starscream every so often for just, existing and honestly chilling and yeah he talks a lot, but megatron's anger needs to be directed toward shockwave. and soundwave is also kinda chilling letting shockwave do shit.

like it's just so surprising that the ONLY reason megatron truly lost his way, the cause and became a bad leader in the wfc is because he couldn't stand up to, or put shockwave in his place. while i love this megatron, especially his voice, it seems like he just doesn't know how to stand his ground and is easily swayed and that was seen early on. and that is just so annoying to me because he has a clear vision of his movement/cause and shockwave can come along and just say some dumb shit repackaged as smart shit and megatron listens.

[n00nb00n]

Ya wanna know what was a real missed opportunity from Netflix’s WFC Trilogy?

Elita-1 and Shockwave not fighting onboard hovercrafts/hoverboards

They both got figures that give them hovercrafts/hoverboards, and it would have been COOL if this was included in the show!

Both of them zipping over the place like the Green Goblin, each trying to shoot and knock off the other whilst outmaneuvering shots and holding onto their own!

I admit that I didn’t watch the WFC Trilogy; I only know of details from the show because of others talking about it, but I can bet that if they included a hovercraft fight scene between these two, people would have talked!

[eldritchships]

okay since you reblogged that voice post I'm curious, do you have any thoughts on G1 Shockwave's voice? 👀

I am a fan of G1 Shockwave's voice! It's hard to go wrong with the classic voices, especially since such a great job was done of it.

G1 Shockwave I think has the most expressive voice. There's a lot more of the changes in inflection that I enjoy picking up on in other Shockwaves, and it sounds like it has more noticeable emotion behind it while keeping the intelligent and cunning aspect. I personally find it charming and weirdly comforting. I've put G1 Shockwave clips on in the background when I've needed to relax.

I'm a huge fan of the fact that TFA brought the same voice actor back to voice Shockwave again. The TFA version feels distilled, in some way. It emphasised the main elements of the original Gen 1 voice. That of course could be due to either different audio equipment or different voice direction (or a mix of both). It fittingly has a more manipulative undertone to it, suiting Shockwave's role as a double-agent in the show.

TFA also has the bonus aspect of the voice he puts on as Longarm Prime. It feels a little goofier just because it lacks the accent Shockwave has, but I like that. It's inviting and friendly (which is probably intentional).

I honestly hope that at some point we get to see the G1 voice with a Shockwave that's more physically built (e.g. like the TFP version is). As far as I'm aware the physically-strongest Shockwaves have had deeper monotone voices, which fit and I enjoy, but it'd be interesting to see G1/TFA's smoother voice coming out of a body like that.

[transingthoseformers]

I have this crossover idea that i call Alterity (Alternity was taken by a Transformers toyline, but Alterity propably also works).

All canonical Shockwaves (and maybe a few closely related people/creatures like Driller and Cyberverse's spider drones) scientifically end up in one place where there isn't anybody else around and they can't leave. Conflict ensues because many of them are not in fact compatible.

I'm not extremely familiar with many of them, and a few of them (ex. Cloud) i haven't read/watched/played at all or are outright inaccessible to me, or the character only appears very briefly or barely exists, so i'm not sure about the differences between them and the other Shockwaves. Because figuring out how they all are different from each other is the key here, obviously.

Also they know need nicknames to call each other, because it'd get extremely confusing otherwise. Shockblast would call everybody something insulting, but i can't think of anything for their "official" nicknames. Ideas?

The Cast

Funpub SG Shockwave — The one who looks exactly like Shockblast. Accompanied by his assistant Fistfight? Not a actually a scientist, because G1 Shockwave wasn't.

SG Animated Shockwave — He appeared in SD SG. Idk if TFA Shockwave is an actual scientist.

SG IDW Shockwave — From the IDW'S 2021-2022 Shattered Glass comic. I don't think it was a good decision,

IDW Comics Shockwave — As pre-Dark Cybertron or post-Unicron? Or immediately after Dark Cybertron? Or as the slightly dodgy senator?

Sunbow G1 Shockwave — That incompetent Megatron simp. Not actually a scientist?

Marvel G1 Shockwave — The competent backstabber who kept trying to overthrow Megatron. As pre- or post-Regeneration One (where the epilogue gave him, Starscream, and Ravage some kind of offscreen redemption arcs)? If it was post-Regeneration One, Starscream and Ravage could end up there too or are there too many people who aren't Shockwave in this? Not actually a scientist.

TFA Shockwave — Another Megatron simp, but also a shapeshifter. Did he really have a personality in the show or is most of it the fandom filling in? Is he actually a scientist?

Cyberverse Shockwave — I like to think he's actually a beastformer with an alien bug altmode. Accompanied by the spider tank drones?

IDW2 Shockwave — I haven't read, but apparently he's weirdly chaotic and fought in a Cybertron vs eldritch abomination war on the eldritch abomination's side?

Bee Movie Shockwave — Tfwiki says it's the same continuity family as Bayverse but it's obviously not.

Bayverse Shockwave — Accompanied by Driller?

Dreamwave Shockwave — Also haven't read. I think this was the first continuity where he was a scientist.

Netflix Trilogy Shockwave — The powered-up cannibal mode whose eye spontaneously changed color?

Transtech Shockwave — Don't know the guy at all.

Cybertron Shockwave — The one whose name is actually Shockblast and who doesn't act like Shockwave at all, but was only called Shockblast because of copyright issues. Could have Sixshot with him?

Cloud Shockwave — Also don't know the guy at all.

Earthspark Shockwave — They did my boy dirty and the series is still ongoing, but every Shockwave is every Shockwave.

TFP Shockwave — Post-Predacons Rising, accompanied by Ripclaw who was the clone in the tube? I'm thinking about Emperor Kumqyat's analysis video...

I know they canonically are the same, but should i treat TFP as a separate continuity from the WFC games and the other Aligned material because of the characterizational differences TFP had from the games and the Covenant of Primus in regard to Shockwave?

Honestly i think how the tfwiki calls it the aligned continuity family tells us so muchhh

Tfa Shockwave was actually a science! He was working on the Omega Supreme clones that ended up taking after Lugnut! He just was also a spy. I think.

I think? They're calling it Knightverse now? I call it beeverse but that's probably not gonna catch on

[blueikeproductions]

Zeta Prime as the 13th Prime is admittedly unusual.

Conceptually, the 13 were initially meant to be an intentionally vague group shrouded in mystery. It wasn’t until the Bay Fallen that the Primes began being fleshed out as a group more, with The Fallen, Alpha Trion, Liege Maximo, Vector Prime, Prima and Maccadam chosen to properly be members of the group. To fill in the gaps and explain other series concepts Onyx, Solus, Nexus, Micronus, Amalgamous and Quintus were created.

That left one unaccounted for.

Aligned tried to be cute about, by dubbing them “The Arisen”, another Prime like The Fallen whose name was stricken from history, but unlike Megatronus, The Arisen was highly regarded.

In actuality, the 13th was Optimus.

Perhaps a decades late overreaction to 80’s kids horrified at Optimus dying, and Rodimus as such not being embraced, Aligned opted to make Optimus so special, so meant to be a Prime, he WAS one of the 13.

This … isn’t exactly a popular idea among fans, as it greatly lessens the appeal that Optimus EARNED his position, rather than he simply already WAS Prime. This probably is meant to tie into the Dynasty of Primes concept from the movies that was fleshed out more in the IDW movie comics. I think it worked better there because it was just a one off thing, and Optimus didn’t even believe he was Prime, and was too humble to accept it.

Aligned would explain it as Optimus sacrificing himself on ancient Cybertron and being reborn into Orion Pax, minus his memories. TFP and RiD15 would mimic this… multiple times, having Optimus live up to being the Arisen, but that this specific cycle keeps happening makes me think the Arisen has a thinly disguised fetish.

Other media like Forged to Fight, Cyberverse and IDW would also use this concept to some extent, the simplified version being the 13th Prime is the one that was destined to truly bare the Matrix. Everyone else was just keeping it warm for him.

This typically means Optimus, except for Prime Wars where Rodimus, Optimus and finally Optimus Primal bore the Matrix, with the Boss Monkey being Optimus Prime’s true successor while Hot Rod was in a coma after being overshadowed by Unicron.

IDW saw Optimus use the religious colonists’ belief in The Arisen as a political tool to ensure Cybertron, Earth and related planets stay United. The Arisen was also one of the ancient tribal Primes, though we never got a proper look at him. Shockwave, having gone back to the past, would say Optimus truly is the Arisen, but the matter was intentionally left vague and never addressed.

Forged to Fight leaned more in the original Aligned concept, where The Fallen immediately recognized Optimus as the 13th, but Optimus has no clue what he was on about.

Cyberverse tries to split the difference. Optimus is marked as the 13th Prime when he dies in the Robo-Robotnik universe, and joins the Matrix. In the main universe, Zeta Prime is implied to be among the 13 Primes, as a power mad Starscream names several Scraplets after them.

Because of TFONE looking to greatly simplify things, the somewhat complex idea of the Arisen was tossed aside in favor of sticking Zeta Prime in the role instead. Not to mention Orion being preordained to be Optimus doesn’t fit at all for the story the movie is trying to tell.

But who is Zeta?

Well…

He’s more a concept than a character. He doesn’t really have a preexisting counterpart from Marvel or Dreamwave to give us an idea of what he’s like.

His origins seem to lie in the WFC game.

While his colors evoke Marvel and Animated Sentinel, it appears there was conflicting ideas on what his name was. The game studio declared he was Zeta Prime, while Hasbro insisted he was Sentinel Prime, with ultimately the character becoming “Sentinel Zeta Prime”. The game still calls him Zeta nonetheless, with ancillary media describing him as a former, fiery military officer who lost touch with the robots he represented. He was responsible for chasing off the Quints and ushering in the Golden Age with the various Colony Worlds until the Rust Plague happened, forcing the Space Bridges to be shut down. That seemed to mark the downfall of Zeta going forward, as he was also the Prime that retained the Quints’ oppressive caste system that Megatron (and Orion Pax) rose up against.

Hasbro’s insistence he was Sentinel persisted in the Covenant of Primus, where his younger self resembled TFA Sentinel Prime, along with having an association with the Elite Guard.

This connection to Sentinel is semi referenced in TFONE, as Zeta was the first Matrix barer, with a power hungry Sentinel shooting him dead and eagerly tearing into his chest to claim the Matrix. Perhaps this was meant to be a meta gag on the writers’ part, with Sentinel going “I’m the guy before Optimus, not you, ya pompous poser!”

The only other Zeta that we know of is from IDW, a significant Prime that like Nova Prime, influenced a lot of the lore.

Initially he looked like this.

Your typical IDW “OC”, with him eventually donning on armor that became his standard look.

I swear someone on staff at the time clearly liked Digimon, because that is straight up Seraphimon.

It even had the loin cloth sash thing.

Other artists would Roboticize the design, making the Seraphimon influence less obvious though.

What this version of Zeta Transforms into is never specified, but with IDW original villains tending to favor flying machines, I’m going with a jet.

Zeta and Orion Pax were former students of Shockwave (pre-emotionless cyclops), both being seen in having greatness to being a Prime. Zeta became Prime after Sentinel’s “death”, fulfilling Shockwave’s desires. Zeta would become Orion‘s teacher and friend, but like Megatron, Orion would notice Zeta increasingly slip into megalomania, the stress of the early Great War against the Decepticons growing, feeding Zeta’s own lust for power. The mask finally having slipped, Zeta Prime used a “Vamparc Ribbon” in an attempt to wipe out the Decepticons or any form of rabble rousers, nor particularly caring who or what the ribbon sucked the Energon out of in the process. Orion and Megatron saw fit to team up against a mutual enemy and destroyed him, though the Great War waged on regardless.

TFONE Zeta Prime visually draws inspiration from his WFC counterpart, though simplified and a bit more ancient looking. While the character model is clearly blue and gold, the in movie model looks more dark gray-ish to me, somewhat evoking Liege and Prima.

We know very little about him, though as he is worthy of carrying the Matrix, clearly he wasn’t at all like his psychotic IDW counterpart. Perhaps the stand out thing is Zeta is the first Prime to carry the Matrix here, as that usually goes to Prima. Presumably this is a vestigial nod to the old “the 13th is the true Matrix barer”, as Optimus later is the only other Prime to carry it, completing the reference. Despite this, the Primes wax on about Orion’s bravery and self sacrifice to protect his friends and expose Sentinel, dodging the preordained Optimus thing.

A notable fan theory states that Optimus’ axe on the finale might be donated from Zeta thru the Matrix, as he too carries an axe as his signature weapon.

This seems to suggest that on top of needing to simply the Prime concept, perhaps Hasbro is moving away from the concept of “The Arisen” altogether. It also implies, with the use of Zeta, the 13th can be anyone a particular story needs it to be, referencing the original concept of the Arisen being a “mystery” anyway.

I think what bugs me more is The Arisen feels like a reinterpretation of Hot Rod’s chosen one role from the original movie and Marvel comics. Modern material is pretty dead set that the Prime lineage ends with Optimus, another instance of ignoring Rodimus.

But Hot Rod & Rodimus Prime fit this Arisen role so much better, due to the Marvel Comics better emphasizing Rodimus’ connections to Primus.

As Primus in his original form more heavily resembles Rodimus.

I would like to think that if the 13th Prime is free to be anyone, that some writers will take advantage of that and stick Rodimus in the role, where he reincarnates in the modern era as Hot Rod and arises once more as Rodimus Prime. It’d be nice to give Rodimus some respect for once, rather than being the whipping boy of angry nerds ala the IDW Deviations comic or, to some extent, MTMTE/LL. We got a better outcome in ReGen One, hopefully that can be replicated in a future cartoon or the Energon Universe somehow since Hot Rod is a major character in Void Rivals. Incidentally, Hot Rod exists in the One universe also, so if the story continues, maybe we could see TFONE Rodimus at some point.

As for Zeta, we’ll have to wait and see if future material keeps him as the 13th and if so, if they try fleshing him out more. Maaaaybe leave the IDW interpretation in the past tho’, or at least reinterpret the Vamparc Ribbon as both a Solus invention and a weapon of last resort Zeta doesn’t like using if we want to let him as the good guy.

[mubthemoff]

Idk how to feel because someone abso-fucking-lutely knew and everyone is so mean to him

[gregemann]

Whats ur favourite tfwiki article?

there's probably some funny ones i don't remember so I'm backtracking to Shockwave's regular g1/IDW one because of the insanity of trying to summarize his motivations in the comics, or the "fandom" section, but TFONE's new entries on shockwave make me laugh because it references the old WFC gamestop commercial